We hate noise: One issue that unites all residents

We hate noise

Jun. 24, 2012

Ernie Schadtle is concerned about the noise from leaf blowers and other loud gas-powered devices that disrupt the peace of his otherwise quiet Hartsdale neighborhood. / Xavier Mascareñas/The Journal News

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When Nan Polanski moved to Montebello 16 years ago, she expected the usual neighborhood noise. After all, her home was located next to the Viola Elementary School and there was a daily recess period.

“As the years went by, the increasing noise has disrupted my comfort, peace, enjoyment and quality of life in my own home,” Polanski says, noting that she can hear routine sounds of the school day that come from inside the building, as well. “Recess times have tripled (while) music and mundane announcements on the PA system summon students and teachers.”

Polanski is hardly among a minority. She’s one of the hundreds of thousands of residents in the Lower Hudson Valley who have had it with the constant loud intrusions, whatever form they take.

“I do not mind the normal sound of children at play,” Polanksi says. “It is the incessant nuisance noise of blood-curdling screams and shrieking, for no reason, without any attempt to curtail them.”

From the “choo-choos” of Metro-North’s commuter trains to the pounding of steel during construction of the next Hudson River crossing, the Lower Hudson Valley is full of industrial noise pollution.

Yet most of the sounds, which keep us quiet-seeking suburbanites up at night and wake us from our deep sleeps well before the alarm clocks are set to go off, come from less obvious annoyances.

They come from the more benign sources of suburban life — the drone of a lawn mower, the banging of a treehouse installation project and even the screams of children playing street hockey.

“I do not like leaf blowers,” says Ernie Schadtle of Hartsdale, who says the machines are ruining the peace on his otherwise quiet block. “They are annoying, they are on all days, and the work they do does not have to be done.”

Anne Putko, the head of an Orangetown subcommittee on noise and leaf blowers, is pushing for an ordinance there that would regulate their use and issue fines up to $250. She also wants officials to pursue a buyback/discount program with retailers and consider a $20 property tax credit for residents who turn in their loud equipment.

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“There’s been a tremendous increase in landscaping noise in particular over the past eight years,” Putko says. “The noise is literally deafening.”

Putko been taking her cause to elected officials throughout the state, but she says there’s been a lot of hesitation because the buyback program would be costly.

She has also received letters from companies that manufacture leaf blowers touting the benefits of the machines; however, she dismisses them as propaganda.

Part of the confusion with this type of regulatory effort is that each community handles noise differently.

Some municipalities restrict the use of leaf blowers during certain times of the day. Others ban them for months at a time during warmer months when residents are likely to have their windows open. They use different penalty structures as well, ranging from $25 for a violation well into the hundreds.

In Nyack, the village’s Noise Ordinance spells it out. The ordinance bans the following:

“The operation of any tools, machinery or equipment used in construction or repair of any building, except in case of emergency in the interest of public safety, other than between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Mondays through Fridays, and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays.”

The fine structure in Nyack is up to $500 for a first offense, $1,500 for a second offense and $2,500 for a third offense, according to the village code.

Aside from being a nuisance, noise can cause serious health problems, including hearing loss, increased stress, sleep disorders and fatigue, says Michael Wald, director of nutritional services for Integrated Medicine of Mount Kisco. Plus, he adds, the intrusion of unwanted noise into a home — or somewhere where there’s an expectation of quiet — can be psychologically damaging as well.

“It’s an invasion of space,” Wald says. “Sometimes it’s a matter of decibels; on the other hand, it could just be too present.”

Since one person’s nuisance is another’s nightmare, it’s hard to create a unified policy regarding noise violations so communities often deal with it at their own pace. But more are coming down on the side of peace and quiet.

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White Plains recently expanded its ban on gasoline-powered leaf blowers — one of the main culprits of noise pollution in residential neighborhoods this time of year — making the use of them legal only during a designated clean-up period in spring and fall, March 15 to May 15 and Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, respectively.

The new ordinance further restricts the times of day that leaf blowers are allowed and bans the use of all gas-powered devices that go over a certain decibel level — 70 decibels for leaf blowers and 85 decibels for other machines such as lawn mowers, chain saws and trimmers.

“We heard from residents about the peace and quiet of their neighborhoods being disturbed all too frequently and we worked with residents and landscaping companies to come up with alternatives that still allowed cleanup of lawns and properties,” says David Buchwald, a city councilman. “Hopefully, this will reduce the impact of noise levels in our city.”

Heavy fines can be imparted for disrupting the peace in White Plains: City code enforcers can levy a fine of up to $250 for breaking these rules, and according to a notice that’s been distributed to local landscapers as part of the city’s new educational campaign, “violations of this ordinance will be vigorously enforced.”

Noisy neighbors

Often the most irritating elements of suburbia are the suburbanites themselves.

“Some of the noise is human noise,” Putko says.

She says children play freely on the streets of most neighborhoods in the Lower Hudson Valley but sometimes they get a little too loud — to the point where it’s rude.

“We are dealing with the children of entitlement, and they just don’t respect anybody,” she says. “They’ll just start screaming without paying attention to adults.”

Putko says it’s a cultural problem in the United States where both parents work in so many families.

“There’s a change in customs today and what’s considered right,” she says, adding that the result is often a lack of supervision or discipline when the children are playing sports or going out as groups when they get older.

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Getting older can have its noise issues, too. Places like Nyack, New Rochelle and White Plains have benefited from their lively downtowns, attracting crowds to restaurants, bars and entertainment venues. But an active nightlife can also have its drawbacks when the noise is keeping people up at 2 a.m.

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson says disturbances from the bars are the most common noise-related complaints that he’s heard, so it’s not surprising that a proposed expansion to Iona College’s dorms has sparked considerable outcry from local residents.

Plans for Iona have been discussed over the past year, and while traffic safety and parking have been hot button issues, the debate always seems to come back to noise.

In White Plains, Buchwald says the police have been active to keep the Mamaroneck Avenue bar scene under control and officials often test decibel levels when an establishment holds a live music event.

Down on the other end of the avenue, Mamaroneck village has a much tamer nightlife, but Mayor Norman Rosenblum says there are still noise complaints from the growing number of restaurants on the strip.

“As Mamaroneck gets more and more successful, it’s a challenge to make it comfortable for both residents and businesses,” Rosenblum says. Yet here, says Rosenblum, residents and merchants typically work it out among themselves, averting the need for legal penalties, he says.

The same goes with residential neighborhoods, if someone is playing music too loud, practicing the drums or has an excitable dog, Rosenblum says.

“Unless there’s a really big complaint, it (working it out peacefully) generally works well,” he said. “Neighbors will call up (the village police department), and by the time the cops get there, people will be quiet.”

By all accounts, arrests or fines are very uncommon for these types of noise incidents.

Industrial noise

Susan Lauffer can still hear it.

The excessive banging and screeching of steel being welded together and pounded into the Hudson River to build the Tappan Zee Bridge was one noisy ordeal for the little girl from Nyack in the 1950s.

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“I was a very young kid when the first one came in,” she says. “The work was all day and night. It was horrible, and you don’t get used to it.”

Lauffer still lives five blocks from the span, and the planning for the new bridge has her very concerned.

“Here we go again,” she says.

The testing of piles have already begun, and Lauffer warns that it’s only going to get worse as the project picks up speed.

There’s been talk about erecting sound barriers for residents near the river to protect them from the intrusive noise, but Lauffer doesn’t think they’ll do much. She says a better plan would be to just improve the current Tappan Zee Bridge without having to rebuild the entire span.

“They’re talking about putting billions of dollars into it,” she says. “They should put the money into reconstruction, perhaps take away the very large trucks and put the tolls some place else so there is less strain on the bridge.”

Such is the nature of life in rapidly progressing modern society.

A few years ago, Westchester and Rockland residents were up in arms about revised flight plans into the tri-state area because it would bring more airplanes — and their loud jet engines — overhead. The revisions were needed, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration said, to alleviate heavy flight traffic in and out of the region’s major airports.

Yet, officials at the airport still routinely field complaints from residents about noise, and they’ll warn aircraft operators who are louder than 90 decibels.

There is also a voluntary flight curfew that is not legally enforced.

“From midnight to 6:30 a.m. we encourage the air carriers not to fly — to be a good neighbor,” says Patricia Chemka, deputy commissioner of the Westchester County Department of Public Works and Transportation.